The ‘treasure your treasures’ festival will take place at 5,000 heritage events across the country September 8-11, and calls on communities to champion their local heritage and support cultural and historic assets on their doorsteps.

Highlights of the festival in Lancashire include events at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, and Lancaster Castle.

Loyd Grossman said the free events held during the festival will provide the ideal platform to stand up and shout about local treasures.

He is encouraging people to engage with heritage as visitors and volunteers, and to get behind campaigns to retain access to places like museums, archives, libraries, galleries, theatres, parks and historic sites.

Visitors are also being encouraged to capture themselves on camera with the objects, people or places that they treasure and to share their stories online via social media using the hashtag #TreasureYourTreasures.

The ‘treasures’ theme comes after research which showed 95 per cent of Heritage Open Days organisers had fears about the future of places like museums, galleries, archives, theatres, parks and historic sites in their own communities, which may be facing financial uncertainty.

Preston’s Harris Museum and Art Gallery and Lancaster Castle can be explored by guests for free during the festival.

For more information about the events, visit www.heritageopendays.org.uk.